1. Field of the Invention
In general, the invention relates to a method for processing two application commands from at least two physical communication channels respectively, using a portable electronic device.
The invention also relates to a portable electronic device and an electronic system with a host device that cooperates with such a portable electronic device.
2. Background Art
The words “portable electronic device” refer to any device with means for processing and communicating information and capable of exchanging data with the outside. Typically, a portable electronic device can take the form of an IC card, such as for instance a SIM (acronym for Subscriber Identity Module) card comprising at least one microprocessor, at least two communication interfaces and at least one memory. Each communication interface is responsible for communication through one associated physical communication channel.
The portable electronic device may cooperate with a host device to use, at least in part, one or more applications supported by the portable electronic device through the host device.
The host device may particularly be a mobile telephone, a PDA (acronym for Personal Digital Assistant) and/or a PC (acronym for Personal Computer). The host device may be connected by radiofrequency waves to one or more wireless communication networks and/or a wired network. For example, the wired network may be a network of the Internet type. The wireless communication network may be wireless telephone network and/or a network of contactless terminals, such as for those used for instance to provide transport services such as bus and/or underground transport services.
The transmission from a mobile telephone to an IC card via a physical communication channel of the ISO (acronym for International Standardization Organization) 7816 type, called the contact type, of one or more application commands using APDUs (acronym for Application Protocol Data Unit) is known. The IC card processes the application command or commands from the physical ISO 7816 channels in the order in which they are received. Then the IC card sends back a corresponding response to the mobile telephone, via the same physical channel, through APDUs.
Transmission from a contactless reader terminal to an IC card via a physical communication channel of the ISO 14443 type, called the contactless type, of one or more application commands using APDUs is also known. These may for example include a command to access an area with restricted access. The IC card processes the command from the physical ISO 14443 channel and sends back a response that authorizes access to the restricted access area by the holder of the card or denies such access.
Further, transmission from a terminal such as a PC to an IC card through several physical communication channels, for example one of the ISO 7816 contact type, and at least one other channel of the USB (acronym for Universal Serial Bus) type is also known. To date, when the IC card is accessible via several physical communication channels, the application command of a single physical communication channel is handled at a given instant. As a result, the IC card handles the application commands from the different physical communication channels in their order of arrival.
However, such known solutions have a major drawback. When the IC card receives a series of application commands from different physical channels, the application commands received are stored and thus put on standby before they are handled sequentially, regardless of their provenance.
Putting application commands from one physical channel that requires a fairly short predetermined time on standby in this way is harmful for the transaction initiated on the relevant physical channel, as the predetermined response time for the processing runs out.
For example, an IC card works with a mobile telephone connected to a wireless telephone network through a physical channel of the ISO 7816 contact type. The card is processing a command, say, for authenticating the user of the IC card, which is already initiated for a contact type application. When the IC card is polled by a reader terminal for a so-called Tap & Go contactless application to enable access to a transport service, for instance, the IC card is already busy processing the user authentication command from the physical contact channel.
Such a known contactless Tap & Go application involves an IC card contained in a mobile telephone and a contactless reader terminal. When the IC card is brought close to the reader terminal, an electronic payment command is sent to the card, which responds in a short time by debiting the credit account of the card holder to validate the transaction.
The corresponding Tap & Go command is not processed within a predetermined response time (less than a second) after the sending of the Tap & Go command and the contactless transaction is thus aborted. That makes it necessary to wait for the processing of the user authentication command to end before repeating the transmission of the Tap & Go command at least once again via the physical contactless channel in order to obtain processing and a corresponding response.